Four vie for first ITES order

First, there were two. Now, there are four.

The Army is considering one of four projects as the first task order of the $1 billion Information Technology Enterprise Solutions contract. The projects include:

* Standards to be developed by the Army's Office of the Chief Information Officer/G-6 for the popular Army Knowledge Online portal.

* A network administrator for the Army's Program Executive Office-Simulation, Training and Instrumentation, because the Navy group it shares the building with in Orlando, Fla., soon will be part of the Navy Marine Corps Intranet.

* A facility at Fort Monmouth, N.J., to outsource information technology support.

* One of the Defense Logistics Agency's programs.

The Army's Program Executive Office-Enterprise Information Systems, located at Fort Belvoir, Va., does not expect to announce the first ITES deal during its two-day industry conference tomorrow and Thursday in Arlington, Va., said Kevin Carroll, PEO-EIS program executive officer, in a March 5 interview at the Association of the United States Army's annual winter conference here.

PEO-EIS officials originally said they would finalize the first ITES order by mid-December. But Carroll said it will likely happen later this month or in April because the Army's IT shop wants the contract to work as advertised.

"I really want people to look at ITES as a contract that does performance-based contracting, not just have the appearance of performance-based contracting," Carroll said.